Everyday Optimism with Cate McLean

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Using my most discerning eye, I clumsily grab what equates to a giant mound of bathing suits to try-on. Padding! (So I don’t look flat). One piece! (To cover up my belly, which used to be flat.) Two piece, striped, string, elastic, fuschia and flowers everywhere.

As I grapple with my final selections for the dreaded dressing room, I can’t help but feel a sense of hopelessness. This can’t be good. I drag my feet toward the fitting room thinking to myself, “more caffeine before this venture might have been a good idea.” Stranded and shivering in the dressing room at a random department store, I ask myself WHY is it so impossibly difficult to find a swimsuit?

Maybe it’s that extra portion of casserole I had at my mother’s or maybe it’s just the logistics of the fitting room, but something’s amiss. “Yikes, it’s bright in here! Can a girl get some assistance? And can someone please just turn the air conditioning down a little?” Then I simply leave (after dressing again, of course), half putting things back onto the hangers due to my discouragement.

Ladies, we have all been there before, right? Well, I have a winning suggestion; a brilliant solution to this annual conundrum.

Her name is Karla Colletto and she has a supreme eye in bathing suit design. The sales girl at Juno & Jove in Sarasota, Florida told me all Karla Colletto swimsuits are “cut to order,” which means there is no fabric wasted, making them friendly to the earth (bonus). It also means they’re available in limited quantities so while you are soaking up the sun, you don’t have to worry about someone showing up in your bathing suit (double bonus). Goodbye, designer-which-shall-remain-nameless swimsuit on the athletic blonde in the exact same color as mine!

If you didn’t think it was going to be a triple decker, you were mistaken. Bonus number three: the stretchy fabric in this swimsuit is a dream; it perks me up where I was once flat and the vibrant color makes me feel like a million bucks. So much so, that I leave with not one, but two Karla Colletto’s. They cover where I need it most in the back and hug my curves.

Don’t forget your sunscreen and hat, dollies!

Now picture yourself on a perfectly sunny day, lying on a sandy island, sipping an iced tea feeling confident, comfortable and sexy without a cover-up (even if, like me, you’re sucking in a little). It’s all completely possible.

Don’t forget to check out the sizing chart and call for help if you need it (I work as a consultant for Juno & Jove and can assure you they give expert style advice, although this is not a sponsored post).